ST GALLEN: The FIFA reform process has been dismissed as “a great disappointment” by a Swiss politician who is unhappy with the antics and status of locally-based international sports federations writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

Roland Buchel, 47-year-old MP from St Gallen, has returned to one of his target topics as the world federation prepares to wrap up the current reform process at its Congress in Mauritius at the end of next month.

Buchel’s concerns are not only organisations such as FIFA and the doping-embattled cycling federation UCI, but way the fall-out affects the image of Switzerland in general.

After the scandal-hit banking sector, Buchel said, “the sports federations are our second weakest point. Our country has a reputation problem.”

President Sepp Blatter launched the FIFA reform process at the 2011 Congress. FIFA commissioned Basel governance expert Mark Pieth to lead the way. The first step was reconstructing and tightening the ethics control system while a string of other proposals will go forward for a vote in congress next month.

This, for Buchel, was not enough. He wanted to see much sharper local legal controls over the actvities of those involved in international sports federation which claim tax-break headquarters in Switzerland.

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